Jubilee Place is a 14-storey one-of-a-kind commercial development adjacent to the heritage-listed Jubilee Hotel in Fortitude Valley, Brisbane. The tower’s unique diagrid structure – the only of its type in Brisbane and the tallest in Australia – was expertly designed to minimise the impact of the development on the Clem7 tunnel that lies directly beneath the site. The project, which required detailed and collaborative analysis with the geotechnical engineer and clear communication with the tunnel authorities to ensure its viability, is a shining example that with the right structural solution complicated sites can be unlocked against the odds. RBG provided structural, construction and civil engineering services for the development which has become the new home of our Brisbane office and headquarters.
Key Technical Challenges:
- Severe constraints of the site with the underlying Clem7 tunnel and no ability to found the tower on either side of the tunnel.
- Ambitious floor NLA requirements to allow the development to be viable.
- A conventional reinforced concrete building exceeded the pressures of the Clem7 tunnel at its crown, making a composite steel building the obvious choice for the floor plate.
- The lateral system typically used in Brisbane of a reinforced concrete lift and services core concentrated the pressures to the centre of the site, which meant that even though the overall building weight was acceptable, the pressures at the tunnel crown were still being exceeded.
- There could be no vertical propping through the heritage-listed hotel, therefore the tower had to support itself in the temporary case.
The building was designed to largely support itself during construction with the perimeter diagrid structure between levels 4 and 5 serving as a truss to launch the tower above. To achieve the required floor plate size, the tower cantilevers approximately 7.5m over the Jubilee Hotel. The construction of a building of this type was a key consideration during the development of the design.
Project Metrics
Project Value:
$100 million
Year Completed:
2022
Sectors:
Commercial
Project Metrics
Client:
JGL Properties
Primary Contractor:
Watpac
Architect:
Blight Rayner
Robert Bird Group Services:
Structural Engineering
Construction Engineering
Civil Engineering